2025 Founders Grant for children’s theatre – Sep 17

Posted by Childrens Theatre Foundation of America on September 2, 2025

Childrens Theatre Foundation of America invites applications for 2025 Founders Grant

The Childrens Theatre Foundation of America (CTFA) supports and challenges theatre artists to achieve excellence in service to young people.

CTFA invites applications for its 2025 Founders Concept Development Grant, which supports projects from not-for-profit theaters that encourage and boost the development of innovative production concepts and approaches to theatre for young audiences. This year, the foundation is expanding to include projects that explore new organizational models to enable theaters to meet current challenges. CTFA understands that the time to develop new ideas needs an underwriter. In addition to supporting theaters developing new work, the foundation is also offering funding to theaters who are looking at ways of redesigning their own organizational structures and considering ways of adapting to meet their current needs. In 2025, the grant committee will award multiple theatre grants between $3,000 and $6,000 to support the creative process needed to develop innovation both in programming and in organizational structures.

To be eligible, applicants must be 501(c)(3) IRS-certified theaters in the United States. Theaters must have been certified as a nonprofit for at least three consecutive years, have an annual operating budget over $1 million, have a demonstrable record of artistic quality, and provide a one-to-one funding match (which can include in-kind salaries and services only if they are related to the project being proposed).

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Childrens Theatre Foundation of America website.

Deadline: September 17, 2025